Google designed Android as an open source operating system, free for everyone. Anyone on earth (with a Google Dev account) can download Android and install it on a phone. Dozens of phone makers have taken Google up on that offer, and more than 70 percent of all smartphones run Android, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at them. When you’re buying a Samsung Galaxy, an HTC One, an LG Optimus, a Motorola Razr, or any other Android phone, you’re not really getting the real experience – the Google experience. Samsung and other manufacturers give Android plastic surgery. They reshape it and make it look totally different, so that it matches their advertising goals. But you can fix this.
Google has made several Nexus phones that are pure Android, and starting now, and provided you’re in the U.S. you can head straight to Google Play and buy a Google Edition Samsung Galaxy S4 for $650, or a Google Edition HTC One for $600. But if you’ve already bought a Galaxy S4 or HTC One, there is still a way to get stock Android on it.
We’re going to teach you how to free your phone and run Android how it was always intended. This process will wipe the software on your handset and, instead of Android with Samsung’s TouchWiz or HTC’s Sense user interface on top, you’ll get stock Android with Google apps, just like the Google Edition phones. This means some apps and features will be missing, but it also means no carrier or manufacturer bloatware. There is some risk involved, specifically an outside chance you’ll brick your phone, so make sure that you follow the instructions to the letter.